The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-10-08

mOFe Ol UlAmOnuS EIe8HluR aLuOug her rolls of swarthy fat, and huge white ostrich plumes waving from the poop-deck of her artificial chig- non, she sits enthroned on a crimson divan under the main chandelier, 8 picture that never could be photo graphed with any machine less for- midable than Krupp gun.
 Another ot these Saratoga fairy elves is wretched old creature of at least three score years and ten; a withered and shrunken effigy of van ity and folly. The chinks in her face are filled with putty, like cracks in dilapidated gilt picture frame. The pallor and wrinkles of age are par tially hidden under triple plating of enamel as hard, and white, and cold as the lining of a clam shell, except where her French maid, with a rouge-pot and brush, has painted the hectic flush of shameless sham youth. Her gummy- old lips, that look like the edges of an india bber overshoe, are dyed a rosy pink, her eyebrows are penciled, and her eyelids tinged with lead or manganese to lend a semblance of lustre to her dead cat fish eyes. Her Parisian robes are of fabulous embroideries and laces, ex- quisite and delicate enough for the fairest young bride that ever the stars shone lovingly on. Diamonds worth a kings ransom glitter in her blonde wig, in her gristly frogs flesh ears, and on her skinny enameled neck and arms; and three fingers on each hand are loaded down to the middle joint with dazzling jewels. Three or four times day this old ruin has her cos tune changed from her bewigged and empty skull to her slippered hoofs, totters down to the parlor or piazza, and, selecting the most conspicuous seat she can find, crosses her ring be- dizzened hands on her embroidered lap, and sits with the simpering, smirky smile of complacent antedi- luvian she-ass on her plastered and frescOed countenance, receiving the homage of her shoddy court and chal- lenging the pity and contempt of every intelligent beholder.
 The portrait-gallery might be en- larged ad intnitum and ad dtsgusti- tum. Hundreds of such splendid plumaged hideosities might be sketched in detail. But where would be the good of it? They are not worth the entomologist's pins necessary to fasten them, like new -fangled bugs, on the walls of recollection. Here and there and everywhere, strolling ,loung- ing, gossiplng ano yawning, killing time, squandering fortunes, and knif- ing each other with savage tongue points, are throngs of gorgeously attir- cd old women, the dirty creases in whose hands show through their gloves and jewels. Loudly dressed young wo- men Haunt past with giddy swells, or fling themselves down on sofas in at- titudes that afford bewildering op- portunities for bashtul men to ac- quaint themselves with all the latest whimsies in fancy hosiery and mono- gram sustainer- clasps. Stiff f-jointed old club-men firt, in race course slang at race-horse rates, with flashy damsels in waists so w-necked that one hardly knows sometimes whether 1t is a breastpin or shoe- buckle | whose sparkle catches his eye. The i first celebrities usually inquired for and pointed out are Berry Wall. "the king of the dudes," not bad looking young man, whose claim to distiction rests on his having spent $30O,000 in three years in clothes and champagne suppers; Jerry Dunn, the Chicago gambler and murderer Lucky Bald ! win, coarse and illiterate boor of the | Pacitic-coast bonanza tribe. who | travels with his stable and harem Parson Burchard, of "Rum, Romanism | and Rebellion" fame; and Tom Och- iltree, whose only reputation is as a liar, and one not particularly brilliant ! or original in his lies. |
 Bullies and bishops, jockeys and | judges, gamblers, governors and gen erals, sluggers, senators, swells and | spooneys, cream of the cream and so- cial skim milk, go rushing, and crushing, and whirling together in an endless maze of motley mix-ups. And, i as general conversation must always descend to the intellectual level of the stupidest person in the party, the | manners of large assembly will in- evitably take their tone, in some measure at least, from the rudest and | crudest clements of the crowd. The | young bucks, in high-colored stripes and plaids, puff cigarette smoke in the faces of the girls with whom they | stroll and flirt. Women who look like ladies use toothpicks at the table, and I saw one the other day, with ! three diamond clusters on her hand, gouging for something between her molars with the prong of her fork. The fair young maiden in heliotrope silk and lace. at the next table to mine, buries her nose in her teacup